Shipping of non-uniform material such as scrap metal can be accomplished in several manners. The scrap material can be compressed into predetermined shapes, such as cubes, and those shapes can be loaded into shipping containers and stacked based on the approximate dimensions of the shapes. The amount of handling required to ship scrap metal in this manner and the cost of the compression equipment can exceed the savings that may be realized by increasing the volume of scrap that can be shipped in a container. In addition, the cost for shipping a container may be based in whole or in part on weight, which may eliminate the primary incentive to increase the amount of material that can be loaded into a container.
Nevertheless, shipment of uncompressed or loose metal scrap can also be problematic, as such scrap metal can be difficult to load into shipping containers. The non-uniform configuration of the loose metal scrap can result in jagged edges that damage the shipping containers while loading. It can also be difficult to clearly document the weight of the loose metal scrap that has been loaded into a shipping container, and the owner of the shipping container may provide weight measurements that conflict with those of the scrap metal provider.